The Joy Luck Club

Jing-Mei’s stories both introduce the novel’s themes and also offer resolution to many of its conflicts. She connects the stories of the novel’s mothers and daughters, since her mother has passed away and Jing-Mei must tell Suyuan’s stories second-hand. The lack of understanding between Jing-Mei and her mother feels even more stark than that of the other pairs, because Jing-Mei no longer has the opportunity to ask her mother to explain her life and motivations.

Jing-Mei struggled since childhood with her inability to feel comfortable with the Chinese heritage of her parents. She rejected this heritage to the point that she purposefully avoided behaviors she considered “too Chinese.”

When Jing-Mei finally meets her half-sisters in person, she realizes that she overanalyzed this supposed divide between her. She still identifies as American, but realizes that her Chinese identity is natural and ingrained, passed along by blood but also by the cultural inheritance of the mother who deeply loved her. Jing-Mei’s greater understanding of her mother implies that the other daughters may also come to understand their mothers better.

Suyuan is an eternal optimist, a strong-willed woman who Jing-Mei treated as a foil most of her life. Though it was not Suyuan’s intention, many of Jing-Mei’s life choices were set as a reaction against what she believed her mother wanted her to do.